NEWS
A3 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8, 2022
Hermiston Chamber of Commerce seats new board
Chris Bettencourt expressed other
feelings and goals, too.
“Hermiston’s growing and
thriving right now, but there’s al-
ways room for improvement,” she
said. “Whatever I can do to help,
that’s going to be my goal.
Bettencourt has been in bank-
ing for 39 years. For the last 24
years alone, she said, she has
worked for Columbia Bank. She
is the manager for the Hermiston
branch.
An Echo resident, she said she
grew up in the town, raised on a
farm that has been in her family
for multiple generations.
The new members join a
board that includes Chamber
President Bennett Christian-
son, Kris Bennett, Dawn Long,
Marcy Rosenberg, Nick Ken-
nedy and Andy Wagner. Ex of-
ficio members are Steve Meyers
and Philip Spicerkuhn.
Hoxie said publicity is a goal for
this board. She expressed her wish
for this board to make its presence
known. It should, she said, be ac-
tive in supporting local businesses
and events.
BY ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Herald
The Hermiston Chamber of
Commerce recently welcomed five
new members to its board of direc-
tors, according to Val Hoxie, cham-
ber executive director.
“I’m really just excited, and
I’m looking forward to this next
year,” Hoxie said. “It’s hard to say
farewell to some of the old board
members that had stayed on,
some even after their terms.”
COVID-19 had made it diffi-
cult to recruit new board mem-
bers, she said. The members
who had spent extra time on the
board, then, provided a great ser-
vice to the organization, she said.
She called the new mem-
bers “pillars of the community.”
They are David McCarthy, Tami
Sinor, Beau Stackhouse, Brian
Sims and Chris Bettencourt.
Terms are two years.
“They are going to add so much
success to the chamber,” Hoxie
said.
One of the new members said
she hopes to live up to Hoxie’s
high expectations. Newcomer
Val Hoxie/Contributed Photo
Board members and staff of the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce pose for a group photo. New members recently joined the board. Board
members met May 17, 2022, for a lunch meeting at Delish Bistro in Hermiston.
Northeastern Oregon vets air concerns at virtual town hall
BY PHIL WRIGHT
Hermiston Herald
Veterans in Northeastern Or-
egon raised a number of ques-
tions and issues Saturday, June 4,
during a virtual town hall meet-
ing to discuss possible Veterans
Administration changes to de-
livering health care in the area.
This was the first of three vir-
tual meetings Oregon Sen. Ron
Wyden, D, is holding for veter-
ans to give input in the wake of
vets at a recent Union County
town hall expressing concerns
over a proposal to move some
VA health care services from
Walla Walla to Spokane.
“The veterans who partici-
pated were particularly troubled
about what they felt was the di-
rect touch that’s so important
for veterans health care was just
going away from the rural part
of the state,” Wyden told those
attending the June 4 event.
Following the Union County
meeting, he said, he contacted
Dr. Teresa Boyd, network di-
rector for VISN 20, the VA
Northwest Health Network,
and Scott Kelter, medical cen-
ter director of the Jonathan
M. Wainwright Memorial VA
Medical Center in Walla Walla,
where many veterans in North-
eastern Oregon go for services.
They both agreed to partici-
pate in the three town halls.
Wyden said local veterans
are “troubled by a whirlwind of
hasty changes, involving a new
electronic health record sys-
tem, delays in delivery of care
and recommendations to move
VA care further away from
Eastern Oregon.” He added he
was concerned Eastern Oregon
veterans did not get enough
voice in the changes and pro-
posals, and he wanted to make
sure the Veterans Adminis-
tration was not making “some
shortsighted cost cutting” at
the expense of veterans.
Wyden then opened the
floor to questions for Boyd and
Kelter.
STAFFING AT CENTER OF DELAYS
Veteran Ken McCormack,
chair of the veteran advisory
council for the La Grande com-
munity-based outpatient clinic,
or CBOC, was first up with sev-
eral matters.
Community care in La
Grande can mean waiting on
the phone 20 to 30 minutes for
someone to answer because of
short staffing, he said, and reim-
bursement for travel is backed
up to last summer. He also said
the call center in Walla Walla
seems to drop messages and has
to handle a larger area than in
the past. He also said it took six
months for the La Grande facil-
ity to hire a registered nurse and
another month for the new hire
to learn the system.
Kelter said most delays are
due to staffing issues.
“We have been trying every
hiring flexibility that is available
to recruit staff,” he said, but the
VA is competing with employ-
ers who can offer better pay and
incentives. And coaxing people
back to work after learning to
work remotely due to the pan-
demic is another challenge.
Catching up on travel re-
imbursements, he said, also is
about staffing and could come
down to contracting that out.
“Obviously that will be at
higher cost to do that, but we
are committed to getting those
claims down,” he said.
Recruiting registered nurses
“is challenging across the
board,” Kelter said, and while
the VA has made hiring in-
centives, applicants might pass
because they can get on some-
where else faster. The VA also
has cut down its on-boarding
process, but the VA still has the
obligation to ensure someone
treating vets is safe.
A question from a Umatilla
County resident also brought up
delays. Shanna — no last name
available — said her father is a
vet and has hearing loss, so tele-
health does not work for him.
But she was not able to get him
an appointment in person until
the end of July. She said she was
concerned about moving his
care even farther away.
“We’re almost driving two
hours round trip to get him
seeing providers in Walla
Walla,” she said.
Kelter said as a veteran him-
self and with a son and daughter
in the military now, he is keenly
interested in access to veteran
care, and the delay in his care
is a concern. He said he would
follow up and look into the situ-
ation. He also said her father or
whoever is with him can record
appointments to review later
to help him understand what a
provider said.
DISCUSSION ON AIR
COMMISSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
Boyd and Kelter also ad-
dressed concerns on the Asset
and Infrastructure Review —
AIR — Commission to modern-
ize and realign the VA health care
system. Boyd said at this point,
changes to Walla Walla and other
places are just recommendations,
and implementation will take
years. Between now and then,
she said, there are going to be nu-
merous steps for more input.
“It’s going to take all of us to
come to a good implementation
plan,” she said.
Kelter said the question
comes down to how do we take
the recommendations of the
AIR Commission and make
sure they have positive results,
including balancing the use of
technology and in-person care.
He noted this process does
not take the place of smart deci-
sions in the field, and when the
recommendations ultimately
come down, the VA is looking
at some matters that will affect
Eastern Oregon veterans.
The VA is looking at more
telehealth care in Boardman
and Enterprise, and Kelter said
he wants to see a provider at
those locations more often as
well as a nurse.
“The staffing model that we’re
pursuing there I think will help in
those areas in particular,” he said,
adding the VA also is looking at
how it can best staff the La Grande
clinic to meet veterans’ needs.
The AIR Commission is rec-
ommending to increase ser-
vices in the Tri-Cities because
the need is there, he said, but
it remains to be seen what that
means for Walla Walla.
“Just because we increase it in
the Tri-Cities does not necessar-
ily mean the demand decreases
in Walla Walla to where we
won’t support those services any
more,” Kelter said.
He stressed the AIR Com-
mission is about providing more
and better care to veterans, not
about cutting costs. And he said
shifting Walla Walla’s rehabil-
itation treatment to Spokane
is what is on the plate, but not
other services.
One questioner pointed out
Boise is closer to Union County
than Spokane, so could Union
County become part of veteran
care out of Boise if changes in
Walla Walla go through? That
seemed to pique the interests
of Boyd and Kelter. Boyd called
the suggestion an “interesting
thought” and worth looking
over. Kelter said this fits with the
AIR Commissioners looking at
aligning service areas.
Wyden at the end said details
will be forthcoming on the next
two meetings, but his point in
all this is making the govern-
ment go the extra mile for veter-
ans rather than making veterans
go extra miles for their care.
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